


Eyes On Me

by formerlydf



Category: Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard - Rick Riordan
Genre: F/M, M/M, never trust a seagull, ridiculous teenagers being bad at feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-03
Updated: 2017-06-03
Packaged: 2018-11-08 10:01:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,626
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11079294
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/formerlydf/pseuds/formerlydf
Summary: Despite everything, Alex will admit that the afterlife isn't entirely terrible. She just wishes she knew why Magnus keepsstaring.





	Eyes On Me

**Author's Note:**

> I spent a lot of time during Hammer of Thor going, "omg Magnus are you staring AGAIN and thinking about how attractive you think Alex is, you are the opposite of subtle," and then I spent a lot of time after Hammer of Thor going, "okay, but where is the fic where Alex gets hit with a cluebat and realizes that Magnus stares because Magnus has a giant planet-sized crush?" And then this happened.
> 
> Set vaguely in an imagined near-future of the series where they've saved the world from Loki but still haven't known each other _that_ long.
> 
> Thanks to pageleaf for telling me the early draft didn't completely suck and plalligator for generously beta-ing the finished product, and to them and stepquietly for letting me yell my Magnus Chase feelings at them and also for causing said feelings in the first place. You monsters.

Between the evil giants trying to murder her and her friends, the morally-dubious giants trying to game all of them to death, the hotel full of undead warriors who are apparently going to be calling her _argr_ for eternity no matter how much she hates it, gods who would rather punt anything difficult onto teenagers than risk missing an episode of Game of Thrones, getting constantly killed as some sort of demented training program for an apocalypse that’s apparently coming no matter what, and _still_ having to deal with the worst mom in the nine worlds, so far the afterlife kind of sucks.

Then again, it's not like Alex’s actual life was much of a blast either. At least now she’s getting fed regularly.

And okay, she'll admit it. The company isn't bad either. Sure, the infinite townhouse of aggressively sweaty hypermasculinity is a pain, but Samirah turned out to be pretty cool, and is also the only one of Alex’s relatives who’s ever had her back. Blitzen is hilarious and surprisingly good in a pinch, at least if the pinch includes accessorizing. Hearthstone’s kind of a mess, but they've all got their issues to deal with. He's doing his best in a world that didn't want him to exist, which Alex can relate to. 

And Magnus is… not what she expected. He's a nerd, and a terrible warrior for an einherji, and also apparently a genuinely warm and respectful person.

If only he would stop fucking _staring_.

She doesn't get it. He's usually a quick study when it comes to other people’s boundaries — he comforts Samirah without touching her, he lets Hearth set the pace in dealing with his shitty abusive dad, and he keeps up with Alex’s pronoun changes without missing a beat. It's just that when Alex tells him to stop staring, it takes less than twenty-four hours before he's doing it again.

And it's not like she's not used to people staring at her. It happened constantly even before she started changing her hair color and dressing in bright pink and green. When people are confused by you, they either try to ignore you or stare at you until they think they've figured you out, slotted you into a category in their brain, checked the box for “girl” or “boy”. People don't like what they can't safely categorize.

It's half the reason she started messing with her hair and wearing bright colors in the first place. She hates it when people act like she doesn't exist, but if they're going to stare, she wants it to be on her terms. Plus, she likes them. The afterlife is too short to go around wearing shit she doesn't like.

Magnus doesn't stare like strangers did on the street, or on the train, or in bathrooms. He doesn't look like he's trying to figure her out, and she doesn't have to calculate whether it's going to turn threatening if he doesn't like what he sees. He just… looks at her, and she doesn't know what his expression is, or what he's looking at. She doesn't know what he's looking _for_.

-

They go out into Boston relatively often, because a) cabin fever is no joke when you're stuck in the same place for eternity-until-apocalypse, and b) pretty much every part of Boston is objectively more entertaining than death by decapitation in the hotel of the undead. Plus, even if they’ve never really said anything about it, Alex thinks Blitz and Hearth prefer hanging out outside of Hotel Valhalla. Even after getting the official thumbs up from Odin, they still get some looks from the humans-first crowd.

Sometimes TJ, Mallory, and Halfborn come with them, or Amir will take a break from work and tag along. Today it’s just Samirah, Blitz, Hearth, Magnus, and Alex. Alex’s team, she thinks sometimes, and then usually feels dumb about it. She doesn’t have a _team_. They’re just… a group of people who’ve gotten into a lot of trouble together and temporarily saved at least some parts of some worlds and also hang out. 

There were people she was friends with at the pottery studio, but it was different. Maybe it’s some kind of side effect of fighting evil via one embarrassing situation after another.

But some days you don’t have to fight evil or pretend to get married or kill a dragon. Some days you can just get cannoli she’d never have even let herself look at when she was homeless and walk over to Columbus Park and only worry about dying when some asshole in a BMW gets too aggressive about running a red light.

It feels extravagant, even if einherji do get a really good exchange rate in dollars on the red gold they can earn at the hotel, and even if they’ve been definitely, absolutely promised that they don’t need to do any world-saving today. It feels luxurious. Alex wonders if this is what it feels like to be a normal teenager.

She’s not sure she’ll ever get used to it, but it would be nice to get a chance to find out.

When they've made a serious dent in their cannoli, their conversation meanders towards the subject of Boston — which areas overlap with other worlds, the worst train delays they've ever had, where they've been and where they haven't. Samirah has them all beat, both because she can go pretty much anywhere via flying horse and because she didn't drop out of school before she ran the full gamut of field trips.

“I’ve snuck in there before,” Magnus says, nodding over at the aquarium. 

Hearth frowns and signs something quickly; Alex is working on learning sign language but she still only picks up a few words. Hearth makes both his hands into fists, brings one up to his forehead, and then brings it back down to tap thumbs with his other fist – something to do with memory, Alex is pretty sure. 

“Yeah, I don’t remember that either,” Blitz says from behind his full-body sun protection. “When was that?”

“Oh,” Magnus says. “No, it was – it was before I was homeless. It was with my mom.” His eyes are focused on his knees, but Alex doesn’t think he’s actually seeing them. “Her car wasn’t working, so instead of going camping we were wandering around Boston. You know that big glass part outside? We were watching the sea lions, and my mom saw this back door with this big handle, so she decided to see if it was open.” He’s got the smallest smile on his face. “Turned out it wasn’t alarmed or anything. I was so convinced someone was going to notice and kick us out, but nobody did.”

Everyone is quiet for a moment. Magnus clearly misses his mom a lot, but he doesn't talk about her much. They've all got the things they keep to themselves, to keep safe. It's why Alex is never sure how she feels about Hearth’s empty cup theory. Even when she got kicked out of the house and barely had anything, there were still things she hung onto: the color of her clothes, the wire whip, the shapeshifting, the pottery studio. And of course, there are the things that have stuck around even when she's tried her best to leave them behind.

But maybe she and Hearth have different definitions of empty.

She thought she didn't know how to respond to Magnus’s story — something precious, freely offered — but she hears herself saying, “After I went to the aquarium for the first time I wanted so badly to try turning into a seal. Or maybe a fish or a manta ray. Something aquatic. Then I realized the best place to try that out would be Boston Harbor and I decided I didn't really need to do it that badly.”

Everyone laughs. It’s a silly story and maybe Alex should feel silly having told it, but instead she just feels pleased and a little warm. In itself that's alarming, but maybe now, in this moment, it's not a sign that she's gotten soft. It's nice not having to front all the time or worry about showing a little weakness.

So of course, that's when the seagulls swarm.

When a flock of seagulls is divebombing you, it turns out that you do in fact have time to think. Alex knows, because she has time to think _Are you freaking kidding me_ three times in a row.

For a minute, there's the frenzy of panic and action you'd expect from a gaggle of quasi-heroes thrown into a sudden and vaguely ridiculous fight. “Who sent them?” Blitz demands.

“And who on the side of evil’s been watching The Birds?” Alex asks. She shoves the rest of her chocolate cannoli in her mouth, freeing up her hands so she can pull out her whip. The seagull she'd been batting away darts to a safe distance with an angry caw.

Magnus says, “Guys, I think it just wants the cannoli!”

“Yeah, and that pigeon just wanted your falafel!” Blitz snaps, looking like the world’s weirdest, ghostliest matador as he waves a scarf to try and drive away a fury of feathers. 

Hearth is signing something Alex can't catch. Samirah says, “I know, Hearth, but I think Magnus is right.”

“So if we eat all the cannoli will they go away?” Alex demands, out of breath because she's busy _fighting a goddamn seagull_.

“I think maybe if we just —” Samirah begins, before she grabs the scarf Blitz is wielding and settles it over the box of cannoli. As the scarf falls into place, it looks, and presumably smells, like a hunk of granite, because that's exactly what it is. Blitz has been calling the prototype StoneChic.

Half of the seagulls immediately flap off in confusion. Most of the ones that stay are more willing to be coaxed off. Except for the one Alex is fighting, which is apparently out for blood.

“What did I say!” Blitz says triumphantly. “The wearability of fabric, the strength of stone!”

“Great,” Alex says dourly, still trying to fend off the most stubborn seagull on the face of the planet. “Now could someone get this one off me before I turn into a hawk and eat it?”

Between all five of them — and yes, it takes _all five_ of them — they finally send the last seagull off with the rest of its compatriots, who have backed off approximately 20 feet while their tiny seagull brains try to figure out what happened with the magical vanishing food and whether it's coming back.

“Maybe if we get lucky a tourist will offer one a french fry and they'll forget about us,” Magnus suggests, with the optimism of someone who hasn't realised that he has seagull crud on his shoulder.

Hearthstone passes him a napkin and points. Magnus looks down, makes a face, and starts scrubbing it off.

Alex doesn't have any seagull surprises, but there are feathers in her hair. “Well, that was… dignified,” she says wryly, shaking them out.

“Between a Valkyrie, two einherji, a magician, and a master craftsdwarf, you'd think we'd have had a little less trouble with a flock of birds,” Samirah says.

“Vicious birds!” Alex protests, but Samirah is snickering, and after a moment Alex starts smiling too. “Pretty impressive as heroes go, huh?”

She flails her hands like she's batting away a bird, and Samirah bursts into peals of laughter.

Magnus is laughing too when he says, “Man, I hope nobody gets any ideas. I don't think I could handle evil seagulls. Chaotic neutral ones were bad enough.”

“God, you're such a nerd,” Alex says, turning to grin at him.

Magnus is already looking at her. Because of course he is.

“What?” Alex asks warily. “Did I miss a feather? Is there seagull crap on me?” She brushes at her face, but all she gets is a smudge of leftover powdered sugar from the cannoli.

“No!” Magnus says quickly. “No, you're fine.” He rubs the back of his neck.

Suddenly Alex can’t take it anymore — not Magnus’s wide eyes, not the way his shoulders are just barely curled in, not the way he looks like someone punched him in the stomach and he’s still reeling. Alex wasn’t doing _anything_. She was just… fighting seagulls. Being normal.

“Ugh, whatever,” she grumbles, her good mood souring. “I'm getting coffee.”

She darts a hand under StoneChic, grabs a cannoli, and stomps off.

After a minute, Samirah catches up to her. She doesn't even have the decency to try to pry so that Alex can yell at her to go away. 

“I'm fine,” she snaps, but he feels less justified about it, which is annoying.

“I'm a little scratched up,” Samirah says, looking at her forearms. “I'll never underestimate birds again.”

“Yeah,” Alex says, shoving her hands in her pockets. She mutters, “You didn't have to come after me.”

“All that powdered sugar made my throat dry,” she says. “Besides, even if the seagulls weren’t evil, I still don't like it when any of us go off on our own.”

Alex shrugs her shoulders but lets it lie. She’s still sure they’re excuses, but she’s not mad enough to yell at Samirah about it when she doesn’t deserve it, and as far as excuses go they’re pretty reasonable ones. After all the messes they’ve wound up in, Alex wouldn’t want any of them to go off on their own either, especially considering that they’re all mortal out here. It’s too easy for something to go wrong.

Besides, part of her is still reeling from the fact that someone cared enough to come after her.

By the time they make it to the edge of the park, Samirah still hasn't asked anything. The longer she leaves it alone, the more self-conscious Alex feels about storming off. 

“He just keeps _staring_ ,” she blurts out.

Samirah turns to look at her. “Who? Magnus?” she asks.

Alex hunches her shoulders a little more. “It’s not… Look, people staring, especially when you’re trans and homeless, it’s not good.”

Magnus should know, she keeps thinking. Magnus knows that you can’t always trust the people who are put in charge of you or the people who think they’ve got a homeless teenager’s best interests at heart; he should know to be wary when people look too long. But then again, Magnus is a boy who looks like a boy. He’s easy to categorize. He probably never got beat up in middle school for trying to use two different bathrooms on two different days. Maybe he doesn’t know how loudly a look can yell.

“Do you want me to talk to him?” Samirah asks, frowning. “If he knows it's making you uncomfortable, I'm sure he'll stop.”

Alex opens her mouth and then closes it again. The thing is, she's sure too. If Samirah goes and talks with him — and she's scary when she wants to be, so she'll make it stick — Magnus will feel shitty about it and he’ll do his best to stop. Nobody will hold it against Alex. Magnus will probably even apologize unless Alex tells him not to.

Alex thinks about a future of Magnus starting to look at her and then constantly jerking his gaze away.

“No,” she says slowly. “I don't know.” They've got ten more feet until they hit the coffee line, so Alex rushes out, “Every time anybody’s looked at me for that long, it’s because they think I’m a freak, okay?”

“Oh,” Samirah says, and a then a second later, “Ohhhh.”

They have to pause to give their orders at the counter, but when they slip into seats at a nearby table to wait, Samirah adds, “I promise, Magnus definitely doesn’t think you're a freak.”

Alex rolls his eyes. “He doesn't look at _you_ like that.”

Samirah snorts. “No. But you know who he does look at like that?” Alex shakes his head. “Amir.”

“What? No he doesn't,” Alex says. 

“Trust me,” Samirah says. “I've spent a lot of time with all three of you.”

“No, trust _me_. Sorry to burst your bubble, Samirah, but Magnus looks at Amir like he's got a giant freaking crush on him.”

Not that Alex can blame him. Amir is ridiculously good-looking, even if he's definitely the most not-single of all the not-single people they know. Plus, he makes killer falafel. Alex doesn't have a crush on him — he usually needs to know someone a little better before any sort of attraction kicks in, if it ever does — but he can't fault Magnus’s taste.

“Yeah,” Samirah says, raising her eyebrows. “That's my point.”

It takes at least ten seconds for Alex to connect the dots on that one.

“What,” he says, and then for good measure, “ _What _.”__

__The barista calls their names. Samirah gets up to grab their drinks like she hasn't just sent Alex’s brain into hyperspeed, trying frantically to compare two different sets of memories side by side. The first time they met, when Magnus tilted his head like he was trying to bring Alex into focus —- all the times Alex looked over to catch him watching, and assumed it was because he didn't trust Alex — the warm look on Magnus’s face the last time they were at the falafel cart —_ _

__“No,” he says when Samirah sits down. “He always smiles when he sees Amir.”_ _

__“Everyone smiles at Amir,” Samirah says, which: fair. “Honestly, I thought you knew? He nearly fell over when he saw you in that wedding dress.”_ _

__“I nearly fell over when I saw me in that wedding dress,” Alex retorts. Magnus had seemed struck dumb, sure, but “struck” was the operative word there; he'd looked like Alex had hit him upside the head with lace and embroidery and he was dazed, unsure how to react. Besides, that dress was… really something. It had almost made Alex a whole new person. “Anyway, what about today? I wasn't dressed up today. I just looked normal.”_ _

__“You were smiling,” Samirah says, as if that explains _anything at all_.  
“That’s stupid,” Alex says. _ _

__“I stare at Amir when he’s making falafel sometimes, and he does that every day,” Samirah points out, with the same faint blush on her cheeks she always gets when she’s talking even indirectly about Amir and her warm fuzzy feelings about him. She takes a sip of her drink. “So does that mean you don’t…”_ _

__Alex frowns. “Don’t what?”_ _

__“Like him back?” Samirah asks, with the kind of expression that suggests that between Valkyrie-ing, schoolwork, flying lessons, saving the world, and literally everything else she gets up to in her spare time, she doesn’t spend a lot of time talking about boys and crushes. Alex can relate, but Alex also has _no idea_ how he ended up in this conversation in the first place._ _

__Valhalla really doesn’t prepare you for this sort of thing, he thinks a little hysterically. Then again, Valhalla has prepared them for almost nothing except how to die more slowly when being attacked by a dragon._ _

__“ _What,_ ” he says._ _

__“I don’t know! Magnus is really obvious, but you’re always a little harder to read,” Samirah says. “And I already know who I’m going to marry, so it’s not exactly like I have a lot of relevant experience.”_ _

__“No. No,” Alex says. “We’re not having this conversation. No.”_ _

__Does he like Magnus? Does he _what_. Who even has time to think about shit like that in their weird endless afterlives? Samirah’s just getting ahead of herself because she’s the only one they know in a functioning relationship. Unless you count Mallory and Halfborn, which Alex isn’t even going to get into._ _

__“Okay,” Samirah says. “We don’t have to talk about it.”_ _

__“Good,” Alex mutters._ _

__“But, whatever he feels about you, he still shouldn’t be doing anything that’s making you uncomfortable,” Samirah says, much more businesslike. “I’ll tell him to get a grip on the staring.” Her voice softens a little, but not enough for Alex to start bristling about pity, when she says, “I promise, none of us think you’re a freak.”_ _

__“Oh,” Alex says, looking down at his cup. He takes a sip, mostly to have somewhere to hide his face but also because his coffee will just get cold if he doesn't. “Um. Good.”_ _

__Sometimes it's still amazing what's happened to him, all the things he never could have imagined a year ago: not the constant danger or the Norse gods meddling, which he always knew he'd never get rid of, but the other things. No need to worry about a place to sleep, buying something as useless as coffee just because he wants it, family who loves him as he is. A home. And all he had to do was die._ _

__The weird and not comforting caveat to that thought is: now that he's dead, why does he feel like he has more to lose?_ _

__Something about that makes him open his mouth and say, without really thinking it through, “But I can talk to him. Magnus, I mean.”_ _

__“Are you sure?” Samirah asks. “If you don’t want to—”_ _

__Alex is definitely not sure. “Yeah,” he says. “It’s fine.”_ _

__Samirah looks at him for a moment, and then seems to shrug and accept it. “Alright. Let me know if you change your mind,” she says. “We can still hang out here for a while, right? I don't really want to get attacked by seagulls again yet.”_ _

__“You know there won't be any cannoli left when we get back,” Alex points out._ _

__Samirah says, “There will be if they know what's good for them.”_ _

__-_ _

__There are, in fact, two cannoli left when they get back. The seagulls have even flapped off, distracted by more easily accessible food across the park, and Samirah must give the others a Look because nobody even asks about why Alex stormed off._ _

__So it goes back to being a weirdly nice day, except that Alex now feels exhaustingly hyperaware of everything he or Magnus does, overanalyzing every smile and glance as he tries to see what Samirah sees._ _

__He can’t. It doesn’t make _sense_. Magnus, like Alex? Sounds fake, but okay. Alex isn't like Amir. He's not sweet, he's not romantic, he's not ridiculously handsome. He's grumpy and sarcastic and he transforms into fuzzy things with claws when he's stressed._ _

__And Alex, like Magnus? That's just… Alex doesn't even know what that is._ _

__They leave the park as the sun begins to lower, grabbing a quick bite by common agreement. Valhalla dinners are good food-wise, but Alex never minds an opportunity to avoid that sort of grabbing-yelling-chaos. Afterwards, they all meander back to their respective homes, taking the long way around to keep Samirah company on her way to the T and drop off Blitz and Hearth at Blitz’s shop._ _

__And then it’s just Alex and Magnus, heading up to floor 19._ _

__They don’t say much. Alex tries, mostly unsuccessfully, not to spend too much time tailspinning about whether it’s too quiet and whether they’d normally be talking more and and whether he should say something and whether Magnus has noticed anything off or if he’s just swanning around blissfully oblivious to literally everything consuming Alex right at this moment._ _

__Alex _should_ be saying something. If he’s actually going to talk to Magnus like he told Samirah he would, now is his best opportunity. It’s been a generally okay day, they’re not in the middle of anything literally world-shaking, they’re alone but not really looking at each other, and it’s been long enough after he flipped out that he feels like he can talk about it calmly but not so long that it seems like he’s bringing it up just out of the blue._ _

__Alex does not say something._ _

__Instead he opens and mouth and closes it again, because how is he supposed to start that conversation? “It wigs me out when you stare at me but don’t get weird about it?” “What’s the deal with you and my face?” “Samirah says you stare at me because you have a giant crush on me, is that true?” Yeah right._ _

__If Magnus doesn’t like Alex, then why does he keep staring? And will he get straight-dude-panicky about Samirah thinking that he did? Because that would _really_ suck. Given how much Magnus stares at Amir and who his friends are, Alex would hope that he wouldn’t react like that, but Alex has learned not to rely a lot on hope._ _

__And if Magnus does like him, then what? Obviously he didn’t want Alex to know, or he would have said something. Maybe it’s just like he is with Amir, aimless attraction with no discernable desire for more. Looking at Alex’s face sometimes is hardly the same thing as wanting to be in a relationship, or whatever. They live on the same floor; they have almost all the same friends; they’re in incredibly close quarters on bizarre world-temporarily-saving adventures every other week. That's a lot to mess up, if it gets awkward._ _

__“Hey, Alex,” Magnus abruptly says as they reach their rooms. “Are we okay? Is there something…”_ _

__He trails off, and Alex says, “Yeah, we’re fine,” almost on autopilot._ _

__What does a relationship even look like, when you’re einherji? Eating dinner together… in a dining hall filled with millions of undead muscleheads who treat decapitation like a competitive sport? Fighting back to back when they’re attacked by monsters? Protecting each other? They’ve done all that already._ _

__Kissing? Nope, Alex isn’t letting his brain go there._ _

__“Okay,” Magnus says. He sounds unconvinced, but in the way where he’ll leave it alone. Alex recognizes that voice; they've all used it a lot. Usually on Hearth and Samirah, but it's not like they have a monopoly on being stubborn idiots._ _

__Alex should've just let Samirah handle it. It would've been so much more straightforward for her. She could've just said, “Hey Magnus, cool it with the staring, Alex doesn't feel that way,” and nobody would have said anything to Alex, and he never would've had to think about it again._ _

__“See you at breakfast?” Magnus asks, already turning to open his door._ _

__“Yeah,” Alex says. “Sure.”_ _

__The door has almost swung shut behind Magnus when Alex darts through._ _

__So fine: today is Alex’s day for spontaneous choices that he’s not remotely prepared for. Fine. Sounds like a Tuesday._ _

__(Actually, is today a Tuesday? Alex has no idea. It’s easy to lose track of weeks when your un-life is just a stopwatch ticking down till Doomsday, exact time unknown.)_ _

__Being in Magnus’s room doesn’t magically provide Alex with any sort of additional clarity. It might do the opposite, even; it’s simultaneously comforting and disorienting to be in a room laid out entirely the same as his own, but with slightly different details. Like home, but not. Pictures, and no pottery. The things that make up the core of Magnus, instead of the different ways Alex is constantly reshaping himself._ _

__“Alex?” Magnus asks, blinking at him._ _

__Right. That._ _

__“You keep staring at me,” Alex blurts out. He fights the urge to cross his arms across his chest and instead looks away, watching the leaves on Magnus’s courtyard tree shift in a breeze that shouldn’t exist, coming from a sky that exists beneath a floor. “That’s why I got mad.”_ _

__When he looks back, Magnus is blushing. Blotchy, bright red, full face blushing._ _

__Huh._ _

__“Do I?” he asks, his voice a little higher than usual. Alex narrows his eyes, and Magnus winces. “I didn’t mean to? Um. Sorry. I’ll stop.”_ _

__“Uh-huh,” Alex says slowly._ _

__“I’m really sorry,” Magnus repeats helplessly._ _

__Alex squints at him for a moment. Magnus is beginning to look a little hunted: still blushing, shoulders hunched, looking quickly at Alex before looking away just as quickly. It’s not the face of someone who stared because they were confused and disgusted, or someone who’s about to get straight-dude-panicky. In fact, it seems like something else entirely._ _

__“Samirah said…”_ _

__“What?”_ _

__He sounds nervous. The more uncertain Magnus is, the more sure-footed Alex is beginning to feel — and what certainty he doesn’t feel, he’s pretty sure he can fake with enough aggression. All this definitely says something about him, but he’s not sure he cares what._ _

__Samirah was _right_. She’s going to be so freaking smug._ _

__“She said you liked me,” Alex says, crossing his arms over his chest. It comes out a little more confrontational than confident, but that’s not exactly uncommon for Alex. He can work with that._ _

__“I mean,” Magnus says, “of course I do. We’re friends, right?” He’s clearly trying to bullshit his way up to more even ground in this conversation, but Alex isn’t having it. He knows that voice; that’s Magnus’s ‘trying furiously to evade the truth’ voice. They’ve all heard it. Magnus isn’t a particularly great liar._ _

__It really should alarm Alex, how stupidly fond he feels about that._ _

__“Look,” he says, because if they leave this up to Magnus they’re never going to get anywhere, because the best defense is a good offense, because Tuesdays are a great day for spontaneous ridiculous decisions, because let no one say shapeshifters aren’t good at adapting to the unexpected, because Samirah was right and everything Alex hadn’t let himself think about is suddenly wide open in front of him, “are you going to punch me if I kiss you, or what?”_ _

__And, just like he did before the wedding, Magnus looks struck dumb, “struck” being the operative word. He looks like Alex felt during that conversation with Samirah. “What?” he asks._ _

__Alex tries not to tap his foot impatiently, waiting for Magnus to get up to speed. Being confrontational isn’t quite stopping him from jittering, which he supposes is at least better than accidentally turning into a hummingbird. “Yes or no, Magnus, it’s a limited time question.” Mostly because if it turns out that, despite everything, he was wrong, he’s going to go into his room and see if einherji can die of embarrassment._ _

__“No,” Magnus says quickly._ _

__“No you won’t punch me, or no I shouldn’t kiss you?”_ _

__“The punching thing.”_ _

__“Good,” Alex says, and grabs the front of Magnus’s shirt to pull him down._ _

__Alex has kissed people before — one of the kids from the pottery studio, one or two of the queer and trans kids he’d known at the shelters. It was nice but it always started off at least a little awkward, and being an undead demigod kissing another undead demigod doesn’t seem to change that. Their faces aren’t at quite the right angle, and at first Magnus isn’t moving and then after he catches a clue he still doesn’t quite seem to know what to do with his mouth, and Alex keeps thinking about the fact that he once threw a pottery shard at Magnus’s head and trying not to laugh. After a few moments, though, they figure it out; Alex presses his hand into Magnus’s shoulder for balance, and weirdly, that seems to relax Magnus, until the kiss goes from stilted to soft and warm and slow, one of Magnus’s hands resting lightly on Alex’s hip and the other on his bicep._ _

__It’s… nice. It’s really nice. It’s probably one of the nicest things that’s happened to Alex recently, which is terrifying in itself if Alex lets himself think about it for too long, so he tries to keep himself distracted by kissing Magnus._ _

__Even einherji need to breathe for more than just tiny inhales at a time, though. When they break apart, Alex backs up just a step, still hanging onto Magnus’s shoulder but no longer gripping his shirt._ _

__“Okay,” he says, taking a breath. “Okay,” and then promptly has no idea where to go from there. They can’t just keep kissing forever, probably. Do they need to talk? Alex doesn’t know if he can handle talking right now. “See you tomorrow?”_ _

__“Really?” Magnus asks. He’s a shade off incredulous and also a little breathless, which is at least flattering. “That’s it?”_ _

__“I need to think. About things.” Alex needs to go make about a thousand bowls and try to process everything that happened today, is what he means. From the faint sympathetic slant of Magnus’s eyebrows, he can probably guess that, which is another thing that Alex is going to have to process._ _

__“Do you regret it?” Magnus asks hesitantly, and Alex abruptly realizes that, alright, Magnus never straight-out said that he was into Alex… but Alex never said he was into Magnus, either._ _

__He pushes up on his toes to quickly press a kiss to Magnus’s cheek, trying not to flush. “For whatever reason I guess I like your stupid face, okay?”_ _

__A smile breaks out across Magnus’s face, and it’s easy to remember that he’s the son of the god of sunshine and good weather. He might as well be glowing; Alex is honestly a little surprised the tree hasn’t burst into bloom right next to them. “Me too. I mean, I like your face too.”_ _

__“Well. Good,” Alex says, trying not to grin. Magnus lets his hands slip away from Alex, so Alex does the same but then feels awkward with his arms just hanging by his side. He shoves his hands in his pockets just to get them out of the way. “...I guess we could hang out, or something. If you’re not doing anything.”_ _

__“Yeah, I didn’t really have any plans for the day besides ‘get attacked by seagulls,’ so I’m pretty sure I’m free,” Magnus says, and then adds, “I really am sorry about the staring thing.”_ _

__Alex finally gives up on trying to hide his smile. “You never know,” he says. “Somehow I might be able to forgive you.”_ _

**Author's Note:**

> (And one final thanks to reena_jenkins, who gave me a whole list of things one could possibly do in Boston, including eating cannoli, fighting with seagulls, and sneaking into the Aquarium via an unlocked fire door, which she has absolutely not done ever.)


End file.
